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The erotic in sports

In The Erotic in Sports, Allen Guttmann illuminates a topic commonly hidden in the shadows, drawing upon literature, art, modern mass media, and traditional historical sources to describe and comment upon its importance across nearly three millennia of Western history. Investigating aesthetic ideals that romanticize the lithe, agile fencer at one historical moment and the massively muscled football player at another, surveying ancient legends and products of pop culture, Guttmann's groundbreaking work uncovers a vast array of evidence that cultures across the ages have celebrated, glorified, censured, and denied the erotic aspects of sports.Read more...

Candor, euphemism, and denial --
I: Historical vicissitudes --
Antiquity --
From the middle ages to the renaissance --
Modern times --
II: The guises of eros --
Erotic athleticism and popular culture --
Eros imagined --
Eros and psyche --
Concluding arguments --
How does the erotic differ from the pornographic?

Abstract:

From Greek athletic competitions to the cult of body-building at Gold's Gym, this text examines literature, art, television, and movies to uncover a vast array of evidence that cultures across the ages have reflected at length, in celebration and censure, on the erotic nature of sports.Read more...

Reviews

Editorial reviews

Publisher Synopsis

"A scholarly, often lively... treatise that suggests that 'there is an inherent erotic element' in sports and that we should be candid about it, as were the ancient Greeks.... As an opening sally in a much-needed debate, this bears reading." -- "Kirkus Reviews"Read more...